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The Water of Life and the Life of Water: the Metaphor of World Liquescence in Russian Symbolist Poetry, Art and Film

Kostetskaya, Anastasia G
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1367511847

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Slavic and East European Studies.
The Symbolist period in Russian culture emphasized intense cross-pollination and hybridization of the arts. The purpose behind these "poetics of blending" was to show the existence of a spiritual world beyond physical-material reality and that the boundaries between them were not insurmountable. In my dissertation, I claim that this vision of the creative process as pursuing various strategies of blending draws on the overarching metaphoric conceptualization of our world, and the human domain as its integral part, as not "solid", but "fluid matter". I employ conceptual metaphor and blending theory approaches from the field of cognitive linguistics to account for the following: how three interactive arts of the period, poetry, painting and film, use the metaphor of world liquescence in their attempts to transcend the material world, realia, and to reach spiritual reality, realiora. The concept of world liquescence reveals itself not only in the choice of water as a physical substance present in the space of a given poem, canvas or film. The Symbolist arts with their close attention to the inner depths of the human psyche attempt to capture and symbolize the slightest stirrings of the soul through the domain of water and very often introduce this element through the plasticity of music. The "endless" Wagnerian melody reveals itself in poetry through protracted poetic meters and specific types of rhyme as well as various phonetic and semantic devices; in painting it is "endless, monotonic, impassive line without angles", in early filmmaking it is the use of movement vs. stasis, special lighting effects and long takes, including (extreme) close-ups of a person's face. In this connection we can also speak about moving water as a traditional metaphor for time: thus the introduction of music as a temporal element into both the temporal art of poetry and the spatial art of painting marks an attempt to convey its flow in both a congenial dynamic art and in a less congenial static art; film blends both temporal and spatial dimensions, and thus reveals time's liquescence in both modes. My focus is on the following three artists of the period: the poet Konstantin Bal'mont, the painter Viktor Borisov-Musatov and the film director Evgenii Bauer. All three rely on blending artforms traditionally considered incompatible. They therefore offer rich materials for the conceptual integration and hybridization approach.
Helena Goscilo (Advisor)
Irene Delic (Committee Chair)
Myroslava Mudrak (Committee Member)
Vitaly Bergelson (Committee Member)
257 p.
Film Studies; Fine Arts; Literature; Slavic Literature; Slavic Studies
Conceptual metaphor theory; conceptual blending theory; Russian Symbolism; Russian Poetry; Russian Art; Russian Film; Konstantin Balmont; Viktor Borisov Musatov; Evgenii Bauer

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kostetskaya, A. G. (2013). The Water of Life and the Life of Water: the Metaphor of World Liquescence in Russian Symbolist Poetry, Art and Film [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1367511847

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kostetskaya, Anastasia. The Water of Life and the Life of Water: the Metaphor of World Liquescence in Russian Symbolist Poetry, Art and Film. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1367511847.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kostetskaya, Anastasia. "The Water of Life and the Life of Water: the Metaphor of World Liquescence in Russian Symbolist Poetry, Art and Film." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1367511847

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1367511847
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.